Terminology of Catholic Belief

union with God

• in God, the perfect love, we are known perfectly and we know him perfectly
• everything that holds us back is burnt away; who we really are is fully realized

holiness

• divine, pure, set apart
• unconditional and merciful love

justice

• better word: "fairness"
• everyone receives what is rightfully theirs

covenant

• not just a contract
• a lifelong bond and trans-generational agreement
• more like a treaty
• God will be here for us and we will be people of God

fidelity

• faithfulness, trustworthiness
• "Love is perfected in fidelity"
• God is always faithful, even when humanity is not

savior

• someone who saves, or liberates
• Christ as savior of the world gives new meaning and new hope to all people
• saves from sin, death, lonliness

incarnation

• "becoming flesh"
• God's act of becoming human in Jesus Christ

resurrection

• not just coming back to life
• a new way of being, body no longer bound by space and time

Holy Spirit

• a person, one of the three persons of the Trinity
• worshiped as God with the Father and the Son
• in the hearts of Christians, at work in the Church

one, holy, catholic, apostolic

• One Jesus=one church, a body made of different parts
• Holy Church is not holy because all her members are holy, but because God is at work in the Church

one, holy, catholic, apostolic

• "catholic" means universal - not divided - all baptized people
• "apostolic" means the Church represents Christ

Tradition

• "handed on"
• the transmission of the teachings of the Apostles from one generation to the next
• together with Scripture, is God's revelation to the world

Scriptures

• The Bible - Old and New Testaments
• inspired by God
• written by humans
• without error in faith and morals
• understood in light of Tradition

eternal life after death

• when we are in love, we want it to last forever
• God is love
• if we are in love we enter into God's endless presence

Original Sin

• the original condition of every human as needing God's grace
• we turn away from God, we suffer as a result

Salvation

• we are saved from all that oppresses us
• fear, death, suffering, loneliness,

Untitled Slide